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Bankruptcy FraudBankruptcy Fraud Gets Contractor Cone 15 Years

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 2, 2008

Updated: 05/02/2008 06:03 pm

TAMPA – Once one of the state's biggest road contractors, Michael Cone will spend the next 20 years behind bars, undone, a judge said, by his greed and sheer inability to tell the truth.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew today sentenced Cone, 52, to 15 years in federal prison for bankruptcy fraud and ordered that his sentence run consecutive to a five-year state sentence he is serving for participating in an organized scheme to defraud the state Department of Transportation.

Ten years ago, Cone Constructors, with headquarters on South Lois Avenue and an office in Miami, had some 300 employees in Hillsborough County and did $60 million in business. The company had done about $323 million in road contracting with Florida over the previous 10 years and was probably one of the 10 largest contractors with the DOT, state officials said at the time.

"This is a fall from grace unlike any other case I've been involved with," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Porcelli, who successfully argued for the harshest possible sentence, calling Cone's actions an assault on the bankruptcy system.

Although he pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy charges, Cone steadfastly maintained he had done little wrong and had been following advice from attorneys while trying to salvage his business after he was barred from state contracts in 1999. That restriction came after Cone pleaded no contest to money laundering and giving illegal gifts to a DOT official.

"Your history and characteristics are not good," Bucklew told him. "You have been in trouble with the law for lying and cheating and bribing, and you don't seem to learn your lesson."

The prosecution contended Cone set up shell companies to hide his assets from the bankruptcy court and had his employees move records around various storage sheds to hide them from the government.

Cone argued he merely was trying to start a business focusing on contracts with the county and private entities after he was barred in 1999 from doing business with the state after a criminal bribery conviction. Cone also was found guilty this year in state court in Tallahassee of participating in an organized scheme to defraud the state Department of Transportation.

Since Cone first pleaded guilty last year, he has tried to explain and minimize his conduct. He later withdrew part of his guilty plea to some charges and pleaded to different charges. During a sentencing hearing that spanned two days, Cone argued his actions weren't egregious, even as he was warned that he would receive a harsher sentence if he failed to accept responsibility for his actions.

Given a chance to make a final statement before sentence was imposed, Cone again sought to explain his actions and dispute the prosecution's claims. But Bucklew cut him off. "It would be beneficial to you to talk about why I should use discretion in your favor," she said.

"I've committed a crime," Cone said, his voice welling with emotion. "I've let my, I've let my wife, my boys and my family down a wrong path … I've sacrificed integrity for greed. I made bad decisions and wrong choices."

He told the judge that if she showed mercy, he promised, "God as my witness, I will never be in criminal court again."

Defense attorney Ronald Kurpiers said 15 years in prison is "an outrageous sentence" for bankruptcy fraud. At one point, Kurpiers said, Cone was offered a plea deal in which his sentence would be capped at five years and his wife would not be charged. Now, Joanne Cone is also a convicted felon, Kurpiers said, and Cone was facing 15 years.

"He's not an evil man," Kurpiers said. "You have to ask yourself, how did we get here?"

"Pretty stupid," the judge said.

"I've done everything I could to guide Mr. Cone away from his personal destruction," Porcelli said. "There was an offer to save the government resources" and plead guilty early, but Cone refused the offer. "It's a difficult sentence, but it's a sentence that's just."

Cone filed for bankruptcy July 7, 2000. According to Cone's plea agreement, he conspired with his wife and employee Patricia Rankin Grable to conceal property from the bankruptcy court.

The concealed property consisted mainly of road construction equipment and vehicles that the three transferred to others and then "converted the proceeds to their own personal use and benefit," the plea agreement states.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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